Bike Power Lighting

This is the wiki page for information about the bicycle powered lighting project. This project is in the development phase with hopes of possible implementation in Haiti.

Here is the presentation from tuesdays class.



Project CharterHuman Powered Lighting (Bike Generator)

Description

• History:
  • One of the partner organizations of this class, the Peltan Christian Primary School in Peltan, Haiti has expressed a desire for lighting of their building. They would like to start night classes to teach trades and skills to adults. This requires significantly more lighting than they can provide with their current resources.
  • Several solutions have been presented. Solar power and human power have risen as the most feasible methods. These are both under further research and development.
• This project aims to determine the feasibility of a human powered lighting system.
• We will research the topic, design and build prototypes, set up and run tests to determine the feasibility of a bike generator system to produce enough power to light a room.

Objectives

• Determine if a bike generator system is feasible or realistic for this application.
• Learn about efficiency of bicycles, battery charging circuits and methods, efficient lighting types, and engineering for less developed countries of the global south.

Outcomes or Deliverables

• Written report summarizing the project research, explaining testing results, and discussing pros and cons of the project.
• Information and plans to build an efficient bike generator if we choose to implement it.

Critical Dates
Note: This section needs to be updated with a completed GANT chart

• End of fall 2011 semester - Report due ?
• End of spring 2012 semester - Implementation

Budget
Note: This section needs to be updated with a budget spreadsheet

• At the very early stage of this project, quantifying even a rough budget is difficult. Hence the spreadsheet below will contain complete budget information as it develops.
• Testing budget should not exceed $400 (excluding the materials already acquired by the 2009-2010 class)
• If testing goes well, and a decision is made to implement this project in Haiti, an additional budget will be required. This may exceed $1000 and may or may not be covered by grand funds in part or whole.

Community Partners

• Peltan Primary Christian School, Haiti

Stakeholders

• Richard Wells
• Lance Gibson
• Harding University

Team Members

• David Bell
• Brandon Huber
• Possibly others.

I've created a google document and started just dumping the information i have found on it. Heres what i have so far. Very much a work in progress.

Please send me your email (harding or gmail account) if you would like to be able to edit it. Probably only the ones working on the project need to edit the document. We will still put status updates on this wiki page.

Documents: Presentation of initial research. 27 Oct 2011.